learnings – Page 140 – Take off with Natarajan

Coldest Village on Earth … Now You will Realise That Your City or Town is a Paradise !!!

December 23, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

The Coldest Village on Earth !!!

If you think that the winter where you live is cold, the people in the village of Oymyakon, Russia will have a good chuckle at your expense. Located in the heart of Siberian, Oymyakon is considered to be the coldest inhabitable place in the world. With a temperature record of −90°f (−67°c) back in 1933, and an average of −60°f (−50°c) in January, it’s easy to see why.

When Amos Chappel, a photographer from New-Zealand, travelled to this frozen location, he brought back incredible pictures depicting the daily lives of the 500 inhabitants of this extraordinary village.

The local market in Yakutsk

A coal-burning plant provides the locals with heating

To keep his cows warm, a local farmer built them a special barn.

The village sign: Oymyakon – “Pole of Cold”

Some of the images were taken in nearby Yakutsk – the coldest city in the world.

For more of Amos’ work, visit his website: amoschapplephoto.com

SOURCE::: http://www.ba-bamail.com

Natarajan

Message For the Day…” What is the Purpose of Divine Incarnation …” ?

December 23, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

People believe that Divine incarnations happen only for the punishment of the wicked and the protection of the righteous. But these represent only one aspect of the task. The granting of peace and joy, of a sense of fulfillment to seekers who have striven long —this too is His task. The Avatar, or form incarnate, is only the concretization of the yearning of the seekers. It is the solidified sweetness of the devotion of godly aspirants. The Formless assumes the form for the sake of these aspirants and seekers. They are the prime cause. The cow secretes milk for the sustenance of the calf. That is the chief beneficiary. But, as we see, others also benefit from that milk. So too, though the devotees are the prime cause and their joy and sustenance the prime purpose of an incarnation, other incidental benefits also accrue, such as fostering dharma, suppression of evil, and reforming, correcting or destroying the wicked.

Sathya Sai Baba

Watch How One Monkey Saves the Life of another Monkey …

December 22, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

A monkey in Kanpur has turned into a hero overnight after it saved another monkey. The other monkey here was electrocuted when it was walking on high tension wires at the Kanpur railway station

This little guy tries everything from, biting, splashing water to slapping and hitting and does not give up until its friend regains consciousness.

This monkey clearly taught us a little lesson on how we humans forget to be human and how sometimes the smallest beings on Earth can show more humanity than we expect them to.

SOURCE:::: http://www.storypick.com

Natarajan

Message For the Day…” God is above and beyond the limits of Time and Space…”

December 22, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

There is no compulsive rule that incarnations should occur only on the earth and in human form. Any place and any form can be chosen by the fully free. Whichever place and form promote the purpose of fulfilling the yearning of the devotee, that place and form are chosen by the will of God. God is above and beyond the limits of time and space. He is beyond all characteristics and qualities, and no list of such can describe Him fully. For Him, all beings are equal. The difference between man, beast, bird, worm, insect, and even a god is but a difference of the ‘vessel’ (upadhi). The one single God activates every vessel and gives rise to manifold consequences. God appreciates the consciousness of unity as the basic motive of acts. He doesn’t appreciate the activity itself being one without variety; activity must be suited to the various needs

Sathya Sai Baba

Message for the Day…” Choose to Spend Your Time in the Company of Divine …”

December 21, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

Exulting in praising the Lord is the hallmark of the real good. Avoid being in the company of people who revel in sensory talks. Choose to spend your time in the company of the Divine and be engaged in the Lord’s activities. Only those who act in accordance to the above are God’s own (Bhagavathas). Reading and enjoying the stories of the glory of Krishna (Lord) in a sacred hall, temple, shrine, or hermitage of a saint, or being in the company of the virtuous and the good — that is a source of great inspiration and joy. You can approach pious people, serve them, and listen to their exposition of the glories of God. Taste for such wholesome literature is the result of accumulated merit and effort. Listening will be enough in the beginning; later, the stories will arouse interest in the nature and characteristics of God, and the aspirant will seek and find for oneself the path to realisation.

Sathya Sai Baba a

Message For the Day…” The Company That Exults in the Love of Lord Proves to be Sweeter …”

December 20, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

The infant doesn’t know the taste of milk. But by taking it daily, it develops a deep attachment for it, such that when milk is to be given up and rice substituted, it starts to protest. But the mother doesn’t despair; she persuades the child to take small quantities of cooked rice daily, and slowly, the child starts liking rice and gives up milk. Milk though once its natural food, is replaced by rice through practice to such an extent that if rice is not available for a day, the child feels miserable. So too though sense pleasures are ‘natural’ at first, by means of practice and listening to the wise, slowly the joy derived from listening and recapitulating the glories of the Lord is grasped. Over time, the company of the worldly who chatter about the senses or sense-objects will no longer attract; the company that exults in the Love of Lord becomes sweeter and then you begin to genuinely experience the Divine.

Sathya Sai Baba

Image of the Day…Ice Berg in South Atlantic !!!

December 19, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

Big iceberg in South Atlantic

Satellites have detected an iceberg adrift in the South Atlantic Ocean. It’s big … but doesn’t meet the criteria for tracking or naming.

On December 3, 2014, satellite images revealed a large iceberg – measuring about 165 square kilometers (64 square miles) – east of the southern tip of South America in the South Atlantic Ocean. This iceberg doesn’t meet the criteria for tracking or naming. NASA Earth Observatory said:

Only icebergs that have a side measuring at least 19 kilometers (12 miles) long are named and tracked by the U.S. National Ice Center. That means nearly round or square icebergs—like the one pictured above—can be quite large and still not meet the criteria for naming and tracking.

But it’s still a big iceberg and so interesting. Icebergs such as this one break off from Antarctica, but scientists aren’t sure exactly where on the continent this one broke away.

In that way, it’s different from iceberg B31, a much bigger iceberg, which broke away from Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier in late 2013 and has been hugging the Antarctic continent since then. B31 is a whopping 240 square miles (over 600 square kilometers). NASA recentlyre-acquired it via satellite, and, although B31 does meet the criteria for tracking and naming, for now it remains in the Amundsen Sea near Antarctica, although free now of surrounding debris and sea ice.

Large icebergs like these pose a danger to ships. For example, in 2007, the MS Explorer, a small Canadian cruise ship, sank after striking an iceberg near the South Shetland Islands.

Bottom line: Early December 2014 images of the large, nearly circular iceberg adrift in the South Atlantic Ocean. It’s big – 165 square kilometers (64 square miles) – but doesn’t meet the criteria for tracking or naming.

SOURCE:::: http://www.earthsky.org

Natarajan

Out on 99 …But 100 in Second Innings … !!!

December 19, 2014December 19, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

India opener Murali Vijay avoids a high ball during Day 1 of the second Test against Australia at the Gabba. Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

How often do we see a batsman get out on 99 and score a hundred in his next innings in Test cricket?

Murali Vijay is only the eighth batsman (on the ninth occasion) to do so. Rajneesh Gupta provides the details.

Murali Vijay carried his sublime form into the Brisbane Test. He was unfortunate to miss out on a well-deserved hundred at Adelaide, falling short by just one run. He, however, made amends by reaching the three-figure mark on the opening day of the second Test against Australia at the Gabba on Wednesday.

Scorecard

How often do we see a batsman get out on 99 and score a hundred in his next innings in Test cricket?

Photos from Gabba Test, Day 1

India opener Vijay is only the eighth batsman (on the ninth occasion) to do so.

Interestingly, four of the eight batsmen are Indians, Sourav Ganguly being the only one to do so more than once.

The details:

Batsmen getting out on 99 and scoring a hundred in next innings

Batsman	Score	Opponent	Venue	Year
Geoff Boycott (Eng)	99	West Indies	Port-of-Spain	1974
	112	West Indies	Port-of-Spain	1974
Richie Richardson (WI)	99	India	Port-of-Spain	1989
	156	India	Kingston	1989
Michael Slater (Aus)	99	New Zealand	Perth	1993
	168	New Zealand	Hobart	1993
Sourav Ganguly (Ind)	99	Sri Lanka	Nagpur	1997
	173	Sri Lanka	Mumbai WS	1997
Inzamam-ul-Haq (Pak)	99	Sri Lanka	Lahore	2002
	329	New Zealand	Lahore	2002
Sourav Ganguly (Ind)	99	England	Nottingham	2002
	128	England	Leeds	2002
Virender Sehwag (Ind)	99	Sri Lanka	Colombo SSC	2010
	109	Sri Lanka	Colombo PSS	2010
MS Dhoni (Ind)	99	England	Nagpur	2012
	224	Australia	Chennai	2013
Murali Vijay (Ind)	99	Australia	Adelaide	2014
	144	Australia	Brisbane	2014

Note: Ganguly had a sequence of 109, 99 and 173 in 1997.

Inzamam did so against different opponents at the same ground.

Boycott remains the only batsman to score a hundred after a 99 in the same Test.

Vijay is the first opening batsman from a visiting side to score a hundred on the first day of a Test at Brisbane.

The previous best was a paltry 83 by West Indian Joey Carew in 1968.

His 144 is now the fourth highest by a visiting opening batsman on the first day of any Test in Australia.

Former teammate Virender Sehwag tops the list.

The details:

Most runs by an opening batsman on first day of a Test vs Australia in Australia

Runs	Batsman	For	Venue	Season
195	Virender Sehwag	Ind	Melbourne	2003-04
185	’Bill’ Barber	Eng	Sydney	1965-66
177	Michael Vaughan	Eng	Adelaide	2002-03
144	Murali Vijay	Ind	Brisbane	2014-15
141	Herbert Sutcliffe	Eng	Melbourne	1924-25

Vijay is only the sixth Indian batsman to score a hundred on the opening day of a Test in Australia. The complete list:

Most runs by an Indian batsman on opening day of a Test in Australia

Runs	Batsman	Venue	Season
195	Virender Sehwag	Melbourne	2003-04
144	Murali Vijay	Brisbane	2014-15
132	Sunil Gavaskar	Sydney	1985-86
124	Sachin Tendulkar	Adelaide	2007-08
116	Krish Srikkanth	Sydney	1985-86
114	Gundappa Viswanath	Melbourne	1980-81

-RAJNEESH GUPTA

Rajneesh Gupta

Related News: Murali Vijay, Australia, New Zealand, Geoff Boycott, RAJNEESH GUPTA

SOURCE:::: http://www.rediff.com

Natarajan

Interesting Facts about ISRO’s Largest Rocket…GSLV Mark III…!!!

December 19, 2014December 19, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

Image: GSLV Mark III on the night ahead of its launch at Sriharikota, near Chennai. Photograph: ISRO/Twitter

The successful launch of GSLV Mark III makes ISRO self reliant in launching heavier communication satellites

The Indian Space Research Organisation on Thursday launched its first experimental suborbital flight.

This was the test launch for ISRO heaviest and upgraded rocket, the GSLV Mark III, which is carrying the Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment (CARE).

The flight took off from ISRO’s space station Sriharikota, near Chennai. Here are five things you need to know about the GSLV Mark III mission.

1) After its successful Mars mission, this is ISRO’s next step to put a man in space.

2) The Rs 155 crore mission has twin purposes — the main purpose is to test the rocket’s atmospheric flight stability with around 4-tonne luggage. The second is to study the re-entry characteristics of the crew module called Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment.

3) Other critical technologies are also to be developed for ISRO’s manned mission. These are being developed parallelly at other centres. But recovery of the capsule from out of atmosphere will be the first to be tested.

4) GSLV Mark III is the heaviest next generation rocket, conceived and designed to make ISRO self reliant in launching heavier communication satellites of INSAT-4 class, which weigh 4,500 to 5,000 kg. Once operational, this rocket will have the capability to ferry four-tonne class of Insat series of communication satellites, which are currently being launched through Arianespace.

5) This is the second mission of the GSLV rocket during the last four years after two such launches failed in 2010.

SOURCE::::www.rediff.com

Natarajan

Message For the Day…” How to Train and Command Your Senses…” ?

December 19, 2014December 19, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

Generally people get drawn to sense objects, for they are victims of instincts. And instincts come along with the body and aren’t derived by any training. The infant seeks milk from the mother, no training is needed for this. However for the infant to walk and talk, some training is necessary, because these actions are not automatic but are socially prompted, by example and by imitation of others. Training is essential even for the proper pursuit of sense pleasure, for it is the wild and untrained search for such pleasure that promotes anger, hatred, envy, malice, and conceit. To train the senses along salutary lines and to hold them under control, certain good disciplines like repetition of the name, meditation, fasts, worship at dawn and dusk, etc. are essential. When one is asked to do such spiritual acts, one has no inner prompting at all. Still, one shouldn’t give up in despair. No one has a taste for such practices from the very beginning, but constant practice creates the zest.